College football coach inspires troops in Afghanistan, Iraq

It’s time for college football bowl games, and that means it’s time for inspiration from the coach—in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Over the next couple weeks, U.S. units in Afghanistan and Iraq will receive team-dynamics DVDs featuring Virginia Tech football coach Frank Beamer, reported the American Forces Press Service. The video is the first of a planned series that will be sent to troops overseas as part of an informal partnership between the military and college football teams. Areas of interest for both parties include testing helmet sensors and balance sensors, and research on concussions.

The partnership was spearheaded by Col. Richard Todd Dombroski, a surgeon for the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, or JIEDDO. In the video, Beamer, who will take his team to the Chick-fil-A Bowl to play Tennessee on New Year’s Eve, says that the secret to winning is not so much talent as it is a positive attitude and team spirit. Other keys for winning, he tells the soldiers, are taking one task at a time and being consistent in daily actions.

Dombroski explains in the article that any edge that could help troops survive IED explosions is critical, whether it’s better helmets and equipment or resilience and team spirit:

"War's not a football game," Dombroski said, "but there are some similar issues." Those issues include team dynamics, plays, fast action and reaction on contact, he said.

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